The Birthday Month

In the Stewart family, August is our busiest month. Birthdays include Parker (actually July 31st but its celebrated with the Augusts), Amy, Dallin, Karl, Stephanie, and me. And of course Ammon now! (Amy's new little boy born August 28th). With my returning home July 27th from my first semester away at school, it was part reunion and part birthday celebration. But special through and through.

Parker and Amy

Starting off with Parker and Amy, it was certainly a night of happiness and laughter. Evelyn was trying on Dallin's church shoes and parading around. And Sophie darted back and forth as she ran with her cousins. Thank goodness I snapped a few pictures with everyone.

Parker's biggest gift was probably from my brother Karl and his wife JaNel as he received a Paper Jamz guitar, he was excited.

 

Sophie intermission.

 
 Amy followed Parker, with quite the array of gifts. I think the best was Mom's pot with a fern. Such a pretty pot, Amy said she has a smaller one but wanted a bigger one to put a fern in. She only asked for the pot, but Mom gave her a little more with an extension from her own ferns to start Amy off!

Tradition in our family says that the birthday person's spouse/parent makes their dessert-or at least this month. Ryan made Amy's cake and Stephanie made Parker's. It is very difficult to take pictures of 2 people blowing out cakes unfortunately.

 Dallin and Karl (ish)

The next celebrated birthdays were Dallin's and Karl's. They had their traditional birthday dinner of pizza (Dallin) and steak with twice-baked potatoes (Karl). But afterwards Karl and JaNel had to leave for a young adult fireside which they were participating in, so Dallin was alone in opening presents tonight.

Evelyn's new dance move?

Dallin loves legos (probably an understatement) and so 90% of his presents were legos or Lego-related. Thank goodness for Amy and Ryan who got him a Star Wars book and Karl and JaNel you got him Paper Jamz drums. Even I fell to the Lego temptation.

Babysitting Thursday night, Dallin asked me to make him the Ninjago map from one of his books. Seeing all the details in the map didn't make feel up to fulfill his request till his mom suggested to him that I could make it for his birthday. Well, it was certainly cheaper then buying him a lego set. So Saturday, as I watched "Thor" and "Captain America" on Netflix, I drew up and colored the map and then had it laminated so he could play with it anywhere. I was glad to see that Dallin liked it (probably because it was a full sheet of drawing paper (18x24")) and not a small one.

I thought it was funny how much the kids crowded around Dallin to see what he got.

My present to Dallin.

Dallin went around and hugged each and every person, it was adorable. Then Parker serenaded us with his new French Horn (5th grade means he can join the band!), with the 3 notes he knew.

Stephanie and Me

 After some tough discussions, Stephanie and I decided on taco salad/pile-up for dinner, it was definitely not a usual dinner but so good and I think everyone was happy with the turn out. Though, we all could have done with a little less noise from the kids; they were LOUD!

Heather has a watermelon patch in her backyard and bought 2 of her 13. I was surprised how big one was while the other was smaller than a volley ball.

Stephanie has been wanting an Ipod Touch for a while and for her birthday her husband decided she needed one. So he rallied together a band of family members to get enough for it. The best part was how Aaron wrapped it. Starting with a large, square box, followed by a bubble wrap package, then brown paper, to a Kraft macaroni box, then cream cheese, and finally made it to the ipod, her face when she realized it was priceless (I may have missed a wrapping step). Then after hugging Aaron, finding out how much effort went into it, and then double checking it really was in her hand, she went around hugging everyone (sounds like a certain 9 year-old I know), even those who had no part in the specific present.

Jenna's been working on her standing and walking, makes me happy to see her so tall.

Kimble was attached to her earphones and shuffle mini, here Dad let her use his phone to play a game.

Since Karl couldn't open his presents last time, he opened his next. It was great seeing him smile. 

A shovel from Ryan and a Rake from Mom.

Finally it was my turn. I love seeing what my family can find. I consider myself easy to shop for because if its an owl, art supply, or chocolate, there's a 99% chance that I'm going to love it. And I loved everything I got.

I asked for a nice portfolio case for my Illustration BFA application. Got it!

Everything I received Sunday except a little gold owl necklace.